Awakening
Can't you see it? A red line that tied people together. How each of them connected to one another like a huge spider's web? Can't you see it? The little scissors moving past those lines. How it callously cut the lines between the dead and the living? Can't you see it? A hole in the hearts of the living. How it grew wider and wider each time the lines were cut?
The answer would be; no. Mostly because you're a being who was by nature an individualist. A being with no care of anything other than your own self. A being of solitude. A lone wolf. A survivalist. You name it. You didn't feel the need of relying on others, be it from your own kind or those humans you met. You believe you can do anything by yourself. Yes, that had been your mindset ever since the time you were born.
You were a shadow.
Year 1995,
Tatsumi Port Island.
A young man abruptly woke up from his sleep, tightly pinching his nose bridge as a slight dizziness kicked in. He focused his eyes, capturing a sight of a vacant steel chair across the metal table in front of him. A jolt of pain flashed through his mind as he tried to move. Gritting his teeth, he eased his fast paced breathing while had his eyes scanned his surroundings. He found himself inside a cubical room with a minimum source of light to see anything other than the chair and the table in front of him. His hand were chained behind his back and he was sitting on the other side of the empty chair. Moving his feet, he felt a cold sensation of a steel circling on his feet.
He felt his fringes covered his forehead as he looked down on his feet. They were chained down onto the table, limiting his mobility. A sudden light crept in when a creaking noise was heard. The man looked away from it and he close his eyes. A loud noise of steel clashing was heard and with that the brightness returned to its earlier state. There were noise of footsteps growing near. The man dared himself to open his eyes and saw an old man with a smile so wide that revealed all of his teeth.
"My, my, look at you. You look fantastic!" The old man spoke in a gruffly voice. "Don't bother to speak. I'm not here to converse with you. I merely need you to listen. Do you understand?"
The man nodded obediently.
"Good." The old man used the chair as a support as he leaned closer, displaying his reddened eyes into the light. "Your name is Tokio. You are the ace of my project. Thus I will not tolerate any failure on your missions. Carve it into your head well."
A portrait of a man's face was thrown on the desk. In the picture, the man has an unkempt, medium length, dark curly hair with part of its fringe covered most of his forehead down to his eyes. A pair of bright-yellow eyes were still visible, although slightly. And under it was a stern nose and a lined lips. His feature was defined and he has a distinctive squared jaw that made him looked like a foreigner.
"That is you, Tokio." A middle aged man who introduced himself as Takeba Eiichiro declared. "I don't get it why Chief wanted me to give you this picture. But still, looking at you act all clueless, I kind of understand now."
Tokio picked the portrait of himself and observed it a little more before he put it inside the breast pocket. He then blankly stared at the scientist, waiting for him to say more.
"You really don't talk much, huh? Sorry if I act like I know you, but I have in fact read your dossier. Nevertheless," Takeba handed him a collection of files, "here is your first mission. I suggest you talk to Kimijima Yuu, in regard of the mission details as well as the information about the Anti-Shadow weapon." the scientist sighed, "We will assign it a mission as soon as its Persona is functioned well. That means, you will work together with it most of the time during your missions."
Nodding, Tokio took the files.
"Okay, I suppose I rambled too much. Good luck on your mission, Tokio."
Tokio steered himself toward the woman named Kimijima Yuu. He had to ask several other scientist before managed to locate her in her lab. Someone guided him inside the lab as he asked for her presence.
"Ah, you are Tokio, correct?" a woman with darkish green hair addressed him as soon as she noticed his presence. She appeared to be younger than any other person he met in this facility. "My name is Kimijima Yuu. Nice to meet you."
Tokio stared down at her hand as it moved forward.
"Come now, don't be afraid. It's just a handshake." She said, taking his hand and locked it into hers tightly. A giggle was heard from her mouth, "You are as clueless as Chief said."
When she released his hand, she moved toward a large tube at the end of the lab. Tokio could see a face behind the oval glass on the tube but he couldn't make it well. Kimijima smiled as she stood beside the tube.
"This is Aigis. She is an Anti-Shadow weapon we are developing. She's still incomplete now, sadly. But I digress. I'm sure you need something from me?"
Tokio nodded as he handed the files to her. Kimijima observed them with great interest before handed it back to him in a few minutes.
"Give me a minute, okay?" she said, moving into her desk and began doing something with her computer.
Tokio only stared at her. But then, he found an interest toward the creature inside the tube; Aigis. He walked toward it and watched silently as a blue liquid filled the tube with Aigis sleeping inside. What he found interesting was how Kimijima addressed Aigis as 'she,' as if she was a person while Takeba simply addressed Aigis as 'it,' the Anti-Shadow weapon. As his mind wondered, he caught a glimpse of his own yellow eyes reflected from the glass. A faint dizziness struck him suddenly and he put his hand over his forehead to subdue it.
"Tokio? Are you okay?"
The dark haired man merely nodded, noticing a worried look on Kimijima's small feature.
"Okay then. Here's the map of the Shadow location. Its arcana is magician and according to the data we have, it has a lack of physical endurance. But its magic power is something to look out for. So, be careful, okay?"
Dark Hour finally crept in, turning the moon into a huge greenish round thing that shone among the darkness of the bloody street filled with coffins. Tokio found a familiarity in this world and he saw himself smiling at the reflection from the puddle of blood. Shanking the thought off, he exanimated the map Kimijima gave him and crosschecked with the nearest sign post. Before he conclude anything a loud roar was heard from behind, gaining his attention.
A large and disordered figure was seen. Its main form was apparently in black liquid, trying to connect one another as defied by gravity. A blue mask of an expressionless person was sighted on the top of its body, being held by what appeared to be a long hand. As observed more, the mask has an 'I' engraved on it.
Tokio removed a handgun from its hostler on his hip. He pointed it at the mask and pulled the trigger. The bullet missed the target, went through the liquid body instead and resulting the creature roared loudly into his ears. Tokio moved up his palm at the agitated creature and summoned a barrage of thunder bolts at it. Roars of pain was heard afterward.
As the damage was done, the creature slowly grew a series of long arms on its body. Without slowing its steadfast advance, the creature began to continuously send a fire ball through its arms. Its velocity was fast and if he hadn't enhanced his agility, he would've been burned to crisp.
Tokio dashed forward as the last set of fireball closing in, effectively dodging it while making an advance at the creature. Now the gap is shortened, he shot a pair of bullets into its mask before imbued them with electricity that initiated from his free hand. The attack hit, stunning the creature in a state of disorder.
Charging up his left hand with electricity and Tokio gritted his teeth as the pain from using this technique rose up into his head. Enduring it, he took one last glimpse at the creature that still chaotically roared its way out of its pain. Tokio shout out a loud cry as he unleashed the energy into the ground.
It cracked in a line before circling around the creature. An excessive amount of electricity sprawl over the circled area before it evolved into a giant thunderbolt, striking the creature from where it stood. Tokio stared at the light generated from the bolt as it ate the creature into nothingness. Before it was dispersed completely, he threw a capsule at the creature, draining what's left of it and sealed it inside.
The dark haired man stared blankly into the distance for a moment, wondering how he had such power with him. Then again, he also curious of that creature he had defeated. For some reasons he also felt a sense of familiarity with it.
Saechika Ruri silently watched how the shadow interacted with one of the scientist. Aside from its unanimated face and its lack of speaking, it seemed as normal as any human being. It could take order very well and comprehend the Japanese completely. Given the fact that only Persona User could harm shadows, people inside the facility was convinced to believe it had one, as written in its dossier. So far, everything went well as expected. However, she couldn't help but thinking somebody might have notice its origin sooner or than later.
The shadow noticed her presence as he turned back. Saechika gestured it to come and she made her way into her office. A dark-blue jacket the shadow wore had its left arm torn apart, exposing the shadow's human arm with burned stains all over its sickly pale skin.
"Sit." She said with her usual deepened voice.
Saechika watched it sat down across from her. Its stare was blank and harmless, but she knew better not to ease her guard. She demanded it to report on the mission.
"The mission was a success. Although," The shadow slid its uncanny yellow eyes to the side for a moment before returned to face her, "Takeba said the fragments I gave him were a little less than he expected."
Irrelevant. All she wanted to know was if anyone questioned its identity. But, judging by how the mission went successfully was a decent proof nobody was. "It's fine. Listen, return to this address as soon as you finished your mission. Starting from now." She handed it a piece of paper. "Dismissed."
The shadow nodded and silently left the room. She had doubt if the bystander would let a yellow eyed human walking free on the street without them noticing. But it's past midnight. No one would give a damn about anything at this point.
"Saechika." the familiar gruffly voice called as she was finished writing today's report. It belonged to Kirijo Kouetsu, the Chief of the Shadow Project. And also the man behind her experiment. "How's the ace doing? I heard the mission went well."
"It suffered minor injury." Saechika began, adjusting her glasses up, "Is there anything else I can help you with?"
"Cold, aren't you?" Kirijo let out a wide grin, "Nonetheless, I am glad it succeeded. Just a reminder, Saechika. Make sure nobody knows its true identity. Understood?"
"Understood."
"Good. Now if you'll excuse me."
A sigh escaped from her lips as Kirijo walked out of her office.
The dawn was coming. Saechika squinted her coal eyes as she glimpsed the sunlight. The sedan she drove had its speed lowered at the junction before it made a turn to the right. She steered it inside an apartment building not far from the junction and parked her car in the basement.
Without her while lab coat, everyone who saw her might thought she was another single and unemployed woman with a stained hoody jacket over a pair of dark jeans. And she wanted them to perceive her that way to hide her identity as a shadow researcher. The thick glasses she usually wore in the office was removed so she appeared more convincing in her disguise.
The apartment building was a mid-class, according to some guy who scouted the apartment for her. She lived on the third floor along with cordial and somewhat annoying neighbors. A façade of her being lazy and unemployed was made to ease her living in the neighborhood, mostly because she can't stand people yapping about their day, or just people in general. Besides, being unemployed made her schedule less predictable and she could go back whenever she liked without the neighbors being suspicious. At least that was what happening so far.
As soon as she pushed the doorknob, the shadow was there, standing idly by the door. Its sudden appearance startled her to the point where she almost screamed, if she wasn't so good at controlling her emotion. Didn't bother hiding her annoyance, she spoke, "Clean yourself in the bathroom."
It nodded before opening the door on the right. She walked down the corridor, silently confirming it was a quick learner by nature. Assuming it studied its surrounding first before took any action like it was instructed to. A glimpse of it pulling up its shirt stopped her from walking and shut close bathroom door. The shadow still has a long way to go to act like a normal human.
Changing up to her pajamas, Saechika went out of her bedroom to check on the shadow. She found its bare back on the living room and couldn't help but feeling irritated of why it didn't wear any clothes on. She walked up to it, a little relieved it wore a pair of pants as she saw him sitting idly on the couch. "Didn't I tell you the basic on how to act properly in a society?"
The shadow had its yellow eyes gazed at hers before it slid away to the side, "The shirt was damaged."
Saechika sighed, walking back into her room to find it a spare shirt. She then threw the plain white shirt at it. "Wear that and get some rest." She spoke before retreating back to her room. It's like taking care of a giant baby.
Disclaimer : I don't own persona.
Note: It's AU, kinda, i don't know. You should ignore this note.